Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-06-16
REPUBLICAN DOCTRINE.
CONCLUSION Of senator sherm.n,, sD.,

And this, fellow-citizens, brings me
to the vital and controlling difference
between the two great parties now as
during the war. From the beginning
of the government, one theory tended
to belittle, degrade and lessen the au-
thoritY of the national Union. 1t favor
ed strict construction of the Consti-
tuition; it construed it like an indict-
ment or penal bond, every doubt was
to be resolved against it. To them it
was a contract which any State might
throw off at its pleasure. They called
this the right of secession. They called
this Government a confederacY. The
Democratic party in later years fell,
under the absolute domination of this
theory. When they undertook in 1861
to put their theories in practice. they
expressly called their Government
confederate Government, and by their
Constitution they made slavery and the
right of secession their corner-stones,
with Jefferson Davis as their chief.
The opposite theory was that the
Government formed by our fathers was
national government, that the Con-
stitution is an Indissoluble bond of I'M
ion, defining the powers of the Govern
ment, to be construed literally, so as to
carry into effect the purposes of its
trainers; that this was an ordinance,
not of the States, but Of the people, to
promote q more perfect union; to pre-
serve the blessings of liberty for them
selves and their posterity. They were
unlonists; they believed in the growth
and strength and power OF the republic.
The Republican party is the representa-
tive of this theory. 1t marshalled the
Union forces for the preservation of the
Union, and against secession. 1t pre-
served the Union. But for 1t the Ameri-
can republic would have been q thing
of the past. For twenty-four years it
administered the executive branch of
the Government on these ideas. 1t was
this that enabled the Republican party
to confer upon the United States the
inestimable benefits of national cur
rency. the homestead policy, the pro-
lection and diversity of our industries,
the vast extension of our railroads and
internal improvements. 1t is this
marked difference between the two par
ties that lies at the foundation of all
uuCSLiOuS VI puullC pOlCJs
The future opens before us an infinite
variety OF questions which will turn on
the extent of national authority. The
revenues must be reduced. This the
Republican party did many times since
the war, and carefully selected for re-
duction or repeal, taxes on home pro-
duction and duties on articles that did
not compete with home industry. We
added to the free lists, made free from
all duty, more than one third in value
of all the articles of merchandise import
ed from foreign countries, including all
articles in common use among our peo-
pie which could not be produced here,
including tea and coffee. We levied a
duty on the remaining two-thirds sutfi-
cient to raise all the revenue needed,
almost exclusively on articles that CON-
peted with home products. In this way
we so protected our industry that near
ly every article of common use on the
farm, in the workshop or the household
is made in this country. Nearly all the
articles, except sugar, from which this
large revenue is derived, are articles of
luxury, mainly consumed by the rich.
A protective duty has been placed on
sugar for the benefit of the sugar plant
ers of Louisiana, but we now propose,
as one means of reducing surplus reve-
enue, to largely reduce this tax, and as
q protection to sugar growers some pro-
pose to pay out of the duties on sugar
a bounty for the home production of all
kinds of sugar from cane or beets or
sorghum! This policy of protection
has been extended to the products of
tho farm, the yield of the mines, as we'll
as the fabrics of the mechanic and man
ufacturer. In this way the levying of
taxes is made the means OF national
growth and development, nearly treb-
ling in twenty years our domestic man
ufactures, and at the same time reduc-
ing prices.
But by the Confederate construction
of the Constitution all this is unconsti-
tutional. BY their theory we may i'm
pose burdens but cannot confer bene-
fits.
THE TARIFF.
And now, fellow citizens, the imme-
date result of Democratic or Confeder-
ate ascendancy is to be a struggle to
break down our industrial system.
They now propose to reduce the duties
on articles that we can and do now pro-
duce, and thus bring our skilled artis-
ans into competition with foreign labor
that will inevitably reduce the price of
domestic labor. The farmer with wool
duty free must either kill his sheep or
reduce the price of wool, and so with
every article of domestic production.
But even on this policy they cannot
agree. With exclusive power over rev.
enue bills they oan agree upon no prop
osition for the reduction of taxes,
while surplus revenue drawn from the
life blood of the people accumulates in
the Treasury. But in the end the Con-
federate idea will, as usual, prevail in
that party.
Randall will resist, but he will learn
the same lesson so many Democrats
before have learned The Confederate
Constitution declared in so many words
that no duties or taxes on importations
from foreign nations shall be laid to
promote or foster any branch Of indus
try. and that is the creed of the Demo.
cratic party.
And so with all the deeply interesting
and important questions affecting
American labor and laborers. The Re.
publican party, embracing in it the
great body of the producers of the
country. has uniformly, by State and
national legislation. adopted every lust
measure that has been proposed to i'm
prove their condition, to promote en-
ployment, to regulate the hours of la
Dor, to secure good wages and prompt
pay in good money, and stands ready
to adopt every just measure to open
their way to comfort. wealth, and to all
the advanced positions in public and
private life. The Confederate idea il
that Congress has no power to do any
OF these things. 1t is unconstitutional.
The Democratic party has therefore
opposed the homestead law, the tariff
laws, and in many of the States. espec-
tally where their strength lay, nave op-
posed wise laws for the protection Of
laboring men. There are some things